Status:: #🌱 Tags:: Links:: [[Aidan's Infinite Play 29 Why You Need To Study BOTH Western And Eastern Philosophy]] ___ # How did Western and Eastern philosophies evolve to be so different? Western philosophy was birthed in Ancient Greece, a land of little farmable land, archipelagos and open oceans. However, Eastern philosophy was birthed in Asian cities that were next to rivers with lots of farmable land and hard access to the ocean. This created three major differences in the cultures Western and Eastern philosophies were birthed in that caused them to evolve so differently: 1. Merchants Were Dominant In The West, Farmers In The East 2. Weather In The West Is More Unpredictable 3. Bread Was The Major Food Source In The West Compared To Rice In The East ### Merchants Were Dominant In The West, Farmers In The East In the West, Merchants were the dominant class because the Greeks had access to the ocean and needed to trade for their food. Merchants must change their ways with the market and trade promotes the transference of intercultural ideas. So Western philosophies grew up in an environment where change over time was a given. Rational sciences were prioritized over spiritual ones to make better goods, more effective sailing vessels, and more. Books like Euclid's Elements, Pythagoreouse's Mathematics are some examples. In contrast, farmers were the dominant class for most of Eastern history. Unlike merchants, farmers don't have to change their ways with the times nearly as much. There's not much you can do if you get a period of bad weather other than hope for better in the future. This made concepts of fate resonate much more with Easterners in comparison to the west. In addition, access to so much arable land made Eastern cities more self sufficient than Western ones, reducing the importance of trade and as a result the proliferation of intercultural ideas. **These differences in the dominant social classes created an environment where strengthening yourself to change the world over linear time was promoted in Western philosophies whereas accepting ones fate and the world over cyclical time was promoted in Eastern Philosophies.** ### Weather In The West Is More Unpredictable In Ancient Greece, the climate is more unpredictable, where as in the East there are cyclical climate events like the Monsoons of India. Unpredictability naturally means there must be more of a focus on the future to make sure that you are prepared for unusually negative weather events. This promoted a linear view of time in the West. However, in the East, cyclical weather events made society more predictable, promoting a cyclical view of time. ### Bread Was The Major Food Source In The West Compared To Rice In The East In the Ancient Greece, bread was the carbohydrate food source where as rice was the major food in the East. Bread has much more protein than rice, meaning on average Westerners are were usually bigger than Easterners. This led to a deemphasis on conflict in the east compared to the west. Conflict promotes a spread of intercultural ideas and a linear view of time. **Taken all into account, the differences in location between the birthing spots of Western and Eastern philosophies, an environment where strengthening yourself to change the world over linear time was promoted in Western philosophies whereas accepting ones fate and the world over cyclical time was promoted in Eastern Philosophies.**